Are you offending your colleagues?

Ryan Lochte's run-in with the Brazilian law forces may have left him red in the face, but it was his decision to lie that dug him a hole in the deep end. Although his was a problem born out of alcohol and bad decisions, there are transferable lessons to be learned for the work place and how it's best to handle difficult situations. Below we lay out all of the pitfalls and teach you to hurdle them, making you entirely safe for work.

"You’d be surprised how many cases I’ve had of people hitting their boss at the office party,” says Scully. “Obviously they get fired.”

A new study by Michigan State University found continually helping colleagues leaves the saviour mentally and emotionally drained, with less quality output of their own work.

This new bit of information may give chronic helpers carte blanche to take a back seat, but don't result to being plain rude. Ever sent a snarky email in haste? Spoken to a colleague in a way that would make your mother blush? Or, you know, punched a producer in the face? Our experts will keep you out of the HR dangerzone, without making your worklife sterile.

You're a Joker – where’s the harm?

A few ROFLs shared with your desk buddies can often make the day go by, but misjudge the guy and an overzealous HR rep could string you up on two counts: misuse of company property and causing offence to your colleague. “This falls under the same area of the law as sexual harassment,” says Scully. “If somebody is offended, particularly if it touches on things like race, gender, age, disability or sexuality, they’re entitled to raise a complaint and you’ll be investigated and put into a disciplinary.”

Your defence may be that your colleagues laughed, but if someone says they felt compelled to, their claim remains strong. You could end up fired but if it’s a one-off, it’s more likely you’ll be issued with a warning. Think twice before sending round that hilarious ‘Which ethnic minority are you?’ quiz.

Do I have to be friends with everyone?

What you see as choosing to go for a pint at lunch without the office killjoy looks a whole lot different at an employment tribunal. “By the letter of the Equality Act, being regularly excluded from team fun gives ‘the boring guy’ the right to complain on the grounds of bullying in the workplace,” says Bishop. And it could play part of a much bigger case against you or your company.

In a case involving Deutsche Bank, a woman won tens of thousands of pounds when a group of female colleagues isolated her, including systematically not inviting her to lunch. “A single incident is unlikely to be dangerous,” says Scully, “but if it’s part of a pattern of being unpleasant to somebody, you could end up in front of your bosses, or a judge.”

Does writing ‘all views my own’ on Twitter give me carte blanche?

Social media experts would have us think we should be posting our every thought. But while your tweets about the Champion's League draw get the green light, more sensitive details could have you busted. “There was a case where a probation officer dealing with sex offenders also happened to operate an entirely legal sex toy business, which they frequently tweeted about,” says Scully. “Their employer dismissed them and a tribunal ruled it was fair as the day job was so sensitive. If what you post affects your working relationships, you could be liable.” Keep borderline banter @nonymous.

My boss is… challenging. Should I talk to HR?

No matter how irritated you are at working overtime, tackle it informally before slapping him with an HR complaint. “Go for the jugular and they will almost certainly talk to your boss about it while investigating the issue,” says Clayton. “That could make the situation less pleasant. There are no guarantees that HR will agree with you or that you won’t have to continue to work for him.” Meanwhile, protect yourself by logging incidents in a diary, and know that should he up the tempo to get back at you, HR is responsible for protecting you against retaliation. No risk of a work ‘emergency’ rearing its head during the Wales/England match.

Should I say I speak Mandarin on my CV?

Only if you actually do, or if you don’t mind getting sued. Elaborating on your hobbies might be thought of as customary but think before you claim proficiency at something you haven’t done since your GCSE years. “Put simply, lying on your CV is fraud and it’s illegal,” warns Langley. “There are now online systems that make it very easy to perform these checks in minutes and uncover the truth about what your qualifications are. It’s also possible for an employer to sue an employee for damages suffered as a result of fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation.”

But it’s not all bad news. If your lack of bilingual capabilities has only been exposed because the company needs them at a particular time, prove your worth by citing examples of when you excelled in your role, made the company money and why you can do the job better than anyone else. And if you’ve been an employee for at least two years, any dismissal has to be fair in terms of overall context, which may just save your sweet and sour pork.

Can I permanently delete that NSFW image?

The latest leaked celeb nudes are harder to wipe off your hard drive than treacle and feathers. Companies can use software tools to retrieve deleted data, so even if you cleared your history, it’s probably still on an elusive server somewhere that only gets wiped every 10 years. “If it was a one-off, you needn’t be too worried,” says Bishop. If, however, it’s been a little more, um, frequent, you either have a lot of technical reading to do or a lot of explaining. On-screen misdemeanours count as misconduct and misuse of company property and can lead to dismissal. “But it was before 9am” is a softcore excuse.

What should I do if I know my colleague is earning more than me?

Other than taking out your frustration on a punchbag, there isn’t a huge amount you can do. It’s not illegal for employers to pay one person more than another for the same job “unless it’s discriminatory, or the reason is related to their character,” says Veale. You only have legal basis for complaint if you can provide evidence (emails, colleagues to back you up etc) that your boss has a personal issue with you. Plus “there’s often confidentiality around pay, and discussions between you and a colleague may be a breach of contract,” says Langley. Use a comparison site such as payscale.com to base your claim on specifics. And try not to wear out that punchbag. They’re not cheap.

Once we’re down the pub, anything goes, right?

Depending on how rowdy it gets, you could have to face consequences far bigger than your hangover. Wherever you are, whatever time of day, your colleagues are your colleagues and the rules of the office apply – as does employment law. “Slagging off the boss, flirting with a team leader or being boisterous with clients can see you being hit with disciplinary action for reputational damage, sexual harassment or discrimination,” says Bishop. True, when you’re a few pints down, less is expected of you than in the office, but it still comes down to social norms and common sense. “You’d be surprised how many cases I’ve had of people hitting their boss at the office party,” says Scully. “Obviously they get fired.”

I have a crush on a colleague. What’s to stop me making a move?

If Sue from accounts isn’t feeling your boundless bounty, a seemingly playful pick-up line could count as sexual harassment, regardless of whether you expressed your intentions in the bar or by the watercooler. If she’s offended by your advances, or even just feels uncomfortable, that’s enough to warrant a sexual harassment complaint. However, if sparks fly in a good way, the company has no power to stop you from hooking up, since this would breach your right to a private life.

Even so, it’s worth checking your specific employer’s policies as you may need to disclose the fact that you’re having a short-term fling. You can spare your boss the intimate details – they just need to know if it’s going to affect your work.

I’m a man. Can I be sexually harassed?

Yes – and it’s a very real problem too. According to Catalyst, more than half of men have left an incident unreported, while men account for 17.6% of cases. If your colleagues swoon and ask you to flex, it can make working life pretty uncomfortable (particularly during client lunches). And it needn’t be that brazen: a man in Reading won a case against his boss citing behaviour like pressing her chest against him when she squeezed past and bad-mouthing his wife.

Express discomfort to them directly, says Cole. “If they continue to act unprofessionally, you have the basis for a claim.” That ought to throw a bucket of ice on the office heat.

Do I spend too much time on Facebook?

If it’s during your lunch hour then like, comment and stalk away. Outside of that, any time you spend on social media could be reflected in a deduction in your pay packet as your company has the right to say that it’s time you should have spent working for them. An employer is only required to pay you for the hours you work. In theory, your hour-a-day habit could equate to 260 hours a year, or approximately 6.5 weeks in lost earnings, says Bishop. Stick that on your newsfeed.

Is my colleague sleeping his way to a promotion?

It doesn’t matter. Sharing a pillow with the boss is fine in terms of employment law, as long as your colleague doesn’t get preferential treatment as a result. Still, most businesses have a policy specifically set up to deal with this situation, and generally employers tackle it head on by moving one party to another team, says Cole. If you think you’re going to lose out on that promotion you’re aiming for, you can ask HR to take your boss out of the process and get a peer of equal seniority from another department to give you a fair judgement.

A little weed never hurt anyone, did it?

As long as you’re not huffing glue in the stationery cupboard or operating heavy machinery under last night’s ebbing influence, you can’t be fired straight up for taking drugs in your own time. Of course, says Scully, every case is different. If you’re the kind of boss who acts as a role model to your team, vocalising about a recent weekend fuelled by media diesel will land you in more trouble than if you’re a junior partaking in a private joint. Take The Wolf of Wall Street as a warning, not the dream.

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